September 15, 2014—Clinical psychologists are being urged by two University of Oregon researchers to recognize the experiences of institutional betrayal so they can better treat their patients and respond in ways that help avoid or repair damaged trust when it occurs in their own institutions. The call to action for clinicians as well as researchers appears in a paper in the September issue of the American Psychologist, the leading journal of the American Psychological Association.

In their paper, UO doctoral student Carly P. Smith and psychology professor Jennifer J. Freyd draw from their own studies and diverse writings and research to provide a framework to help recognize patterns of institutional betrayal. The term, the authors wrote, aims to capture “the individual experiences of violations of trust and dependency perpetrated against any member of an institution in a way that does not necessarily arise from an individual’s less-privileged identity.”

Note: Professor Jennifer Freyd is a faculty affiliate of the Center for the Study of Women in Society. Carly P. Smith has been active in CSWS’s UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence Research Interest Group.

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For more than 40 years CSWS has funded feminist scholarship at the University of Oregon. Our mission is simple: we create, fund, share, and support research that addresses the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities.

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